The Deeper Christian Life # 19

The Deeper Christian Life # 19

Look again at the Epistle to the Galatians. We always talk of this Epistle as the great source of instruction on the doctrine of justification by faith; but have you ever noticed how the doctrine of the Holy Spirit holds a most prominent place there? Paul asks the Galatian church - "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" It was the hearing of faith that led them to the full enjoyment of the Spirit's power. If they sought to be justified by the works of the law, they had "fallen from grace." "For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." And then at the end of the fifth chapter, we are told - "If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit."

Again, if we go to the epistles to the Corinthians, we find Paul asking the Christians in Corinth: "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you?" If we look into the epistle to the Ephesians, we find the doctrine of the Holy Spirit mentioned twelve times. It is the Spirit that seals God's people; "Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." He illumines them; "That God may give the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." Through Christ, both Jew and Gentile "have access by one Spirit unto the Father." They are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." They are "strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man." With "all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering forbear one another in love," they "endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." By not "grieving the Holy Spirit of God, preserve our sealing to the day of redemption. Being filled with the Spirit, we sing and make melody in our hearts to the Lord, and thus glorify Him. Just study these epistles carefully, and you find what I say is true - that the apostle Paul takes pains to lead Christians to the Holy Spirit as the consummation of the Christian life.

It was the Holy Spirit Who was given to the church at Pentecost; and it is the Holy Spirit Who gives Pentecostal blessings now. It is this power, given to bless men, that wrought such wonderful life, and love, and self-sacrifice in the early church; and it is this that makes us look back to those days as the most beautiful part of the Church's history. And it is the same Spirit of power that must dwell in the hearts of believers in our day to give the Church its true position. Let us ask God then, that every minister and Christian worker may be endued with the power of the Holy Spirit; that He may search us and try us, and enable us sincerely to answer the question, "Have I known the indwelling and the filling of the Holy Spirit that God wants me to have?" Let each one of us ask himself: "Is it my great study to know the Holy Spirit dwelling in me, so that I may help others to yield to the same indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and that He may reveal Christ fully in His divine saving and keeping power?" Will not  every one have to confess: "Lord, I have all too little understood this; I have all too little manifested this in my work and preaching"? Beloved brethren, "The first duty of every clergyman is to humbly ask God that all that He wants done in His hearers may be first fully and truly done in himself." And the second thing is his duty towards those who are awakened and brought to Christ, to lead them on to the full knowledge of the presence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Now, if we are indeed to come into full harmony with these two great principles, then there comes to us some further questions of the very deepest importance. And the first question is: "Why is it that there is in the church of Christ so little practical acknowledgment of the power of the Holy Spirit?" I am not speaking to you, brethren, as if I thought you were not sound in doctrine on this point. I speak to you as believing in the Holy Spirit as the third person in the ever-blessed Trinity. But I speak to you confidently as to those who will readily admit that the truth and the presence and of the power of the Holy Spirit is not acknowledged in the church as it ought to be. Then the question is, "Why is it not so acknowledged?" I answer because of its spirituality. It is one of the most difficult truths in the Bible for the human mind to comprehend. God has revealed Himself in creation throughout the whole universe. He has revealed Himself in Christ incarnate - and what a subject of study the person, and word, and works of Christ form! But the mysterious indwelling of the Holy Spirit, hidden in the depths of the life of the believer, how much less easy to comprehend!

In the early Pentecostal days of the Church, this knowledge was intuitive; they possessed the Spirit in power. But soon after the spirit of the world began to creep into the church and mastered it. This was followed by the deeper darkness of formality and superstition in the Roman Catholic Church, when the spirit of the world completely triumphed in what was improperly styled the Church of Christ. The Reformation in the days of Luther restored the truth of justification by faith in Christ; but the doctrine of the Holy Spirit did not then obtain its proper place,for God does not reveal all truth at one time. A great deal of the spirit of the world was still left in the reformed churches; but now God is awakening the church to strive after a fuller scriptural idea of the Holy Spirit's place and power. Through the medium of books, and discussions, and conventions, many hearts are being stirred.

~Andrew Murray~

(continued with # 20)